Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

This weekend was one I will not soon forget! Brandon Shaun Buck made a public profession of his faith by being baptized at All Saints PCA in Boise Idaho. Carol, Brandon’s grandma, flew from California to share in this special time. There were so many people there to love and support Brandon in this important time. We had a celebration lunch for him after church and there were 25 people who came to rejoice with us. Shaun and I could not be more proud! Brandon is such a sweet and tenderhearted young man. He has known the Lord from a very young age. God, in His infinite wisdom, orchestrated the enrollment of Brandon at a Christian school despite the fact we were not Christians. You see, Shaun and I justified it by saying, “well, it is the best school around.” What God had is store for Brandon was not mere academics, but a saving faith in Him. Praise God for that!

Brandon has struggled with shyness his whole life. Although it is far better than it used to be, it is still a bit of a struggle for him. But this weekend was not about Brandon’s comfort, it was about pleasing the Lord. And I believe that Brandon did that! Brandon mentioned that he was nervous about going before the congregation, but he never once, wavered in his decision. You see, Brandon’s desire was to serve and to publicly declare his love and admiration to God. I am proud of the sacrifice Brandon made of his temporary comfort in light of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for us.

What is baptism and what does it mean? Well, the act of being baptized is the outward expression of the decision to follow Jesus Christ. It is the first step of obedience in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Baptism is the time that a person uses to publicly identify himself with Jesus Christ. Baptism alone, does not save you and it does NOT complete your salvation. But, it is symbolic of the forgiveness and cleansing that Christ provided for you in His death and resurrection. Therefore baptism follows one’s profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

If baptism can’t save you, then what can? One word – the gospel. What’s the gospel? I’ll put it in a sentence.

The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy.

That’s the gospel.

You Can’t Outgrow the Gospel

You never, never, never outgrow your need for it. Don’t ever think of the gospel as, “That’s the way you get saved, and then you get strong by leaving it and doing something else.”

No! We are strengthened by God through the gospel every day, till the day we drop.

You never outgrow the need to preach to yourself the gospel.

How the Gospel Strengthens

Here’s an illustration, and I use it not because it’s any big deal to speak from my life, but because it’s what I walked through and where I most pointedly in the last year experienced the power of the gospel to make me strong. (Many of you are walking through things much heavier than prostate cancer—much heavier.)

Do you remember the verses that I shared with you back in February that were almighty for me? It was that moment right after the doctor says, “I think we need to do a biopsy,” when this stab of fear comes. It didn’t last long, mercifully.

And then came—what? 1Thessalonians 5:9-10. It’s just as pure gospel as you can get.

God has not destined you for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,who died for you so that whether you wake or sleep you will live with him.

Settled. Peace like a river.

The Gospel Is Perfect for Your Needs

That’s just gospel—perfectly timed, perfectly applied, perfectly suited to my need. That’s why the Bible is so thick—because there are so many different needs that you have. And there are suitable places where the gospel is unfolded for you, so that if you immerse yourself in the whole book, always with an eye for what Christ has wrought for you and purchased for you in this thick, glorious history of God’s interaction with people, he will give you what you need.

Therefore, everything in me says, and I hope to say until the day I die, “Now, to him who is able to strengthen me, according to Paul’s gospel, to him—to that God—be glory forever and ever.”

God came into history in Jesus Christ; he died in order to destroy the power of hell and death and Satan and sin; and he did it through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Plea to Believe

I know that there are people reading this who are not trusting Jesus Christ, and therefore can only expect condemnation. So I’m just going to plead with you here at the end, lay down that rebellion. Lay it down. And simply embrace the gospel that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Righteous One, died for your sins. He was raised on the third day, triumphant over all his enemies. He reigns until he puts all of his enemies under his feet. Forgiveness of sins and a right standing with God comes freely through him alone, by faith alone.

I plead with you, don’t try to be strong in your own strength; it will not be there when you need it. Only one strength will be there—the strength that God gives according to the gospel.

Don’t put it off.

[This text is an edited transcript of the audio. It is excerpted from the sermon, “God Strengthens Us by the Gospel.”] By John Piper www.desiringgod.org

The reason for the long quote and the detailed description of the gospel is that I know there are some reading this now, who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Know this.. We (the Buck family) love you. We beg you, don’t put it off!

Brandon’s decision to be baptized was his decision. Not one that we made for him. He was nervous. He understands what it means and he understands his call.. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is our prayer for Brandon as he continues his walk with the Lord. Congrats Brandon, we love you and we are proud of you. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this very special time with you!

Father God, We praise you Lord for your faithfulness. Thank you for choosing our precious boy as your son. We pray that he continues to be strengthened in his faith and walks with you his whole life. Please give him the wisdom to turn to you in times of trouble, in times of peace and all the time. Please give us the wisdom as his parents, to instruct him in your ways. Above all else, we thank you for your son’s sacrifice that we can be with you one day in heaven. Thank you Lord for my family. Thank you for Brandon.

Why is Obama not the right choice for America?

Obama was a US Senator for less that 2 years before he started his run for President. In short he lacks experience.

Obama holds many socialist views for example, he wants to tax the wealthy more and simply give the money to poor people who already don’t pay any income taxes. He wants universal health care. Many places around the world have universal health care and it sucks. He wants to tax anything he deems as unclean energy to offset global warming which now studies are starting to show is a bunch of bull. He wants open boarders and he wants to allow the 10 million plus people who broke our laws and came to the country the opportunity to stay. In his eyes its ok to reward bad behavior, like breaking our laws.

Some other issues and items I disagree with him on are

He wants abortion on demand
The democrats feel a big federal government is better (I’m for smaller government and working hard to become successful)
Obama is a big supporters of unions which is bad for business
Some of his associations have been very very questionable
His party strongly supports a “Fairness Doctrine” which will allow government to monitor the radio and TV airways and require a station to give equal time to both sides of an issue. This is not only violates the 1st amendment of our constitution (which is the freedom of speech) but is an effort to take away the one area of the media that conservatives control over liberals.

Finally between Clinton and Bush this country is BANKRUPT we can’t afford a tax and spend type of guy and Obama is proposing no less than 1 trillion in new spending over the next 10 years and since the government is involved I’m sure that number is on the low side.

What I hope is going to happen with Obama as President.

I hope that Obama is going to be a great President.
I hope Obama will unite us as a country.
I hope that Obama is going to protect the American way and not see his election as a mandate for radical change in this country.
I hope that Obama is going to cut wasteful spending and only minimally increase taxes.
I hope that Obama can keep us safe.
I hope Obama is not going to try and turn us into a socialist country.
I hope at the end of 4 or 8 years I can say Obama was a good President and I was wrong about him.

Shaun

I am planning on updating this post with all the cute and funny things that Tyler says.

11/3/08 I asked Tyler if he could count to four. (He TOTALLY knows how to do this) he said, “Yes I can…. five, four, three, two, one…. YELLOW! I guess yellow is still a favorite?!

11/2/08 On the way to church, Shaun was singing a silly song (as usual) and being goofy. Out of nowhere, Tyler says, “Daddy, you’re a FREAK!”

10/31/08 This morning Tyler got up and had to use the bathroom.  While he stood there taking care of business, he passed gas. A lot of gas! He turned to me and said, “Mommy, I have a little problem with tooties today.”

10/27/08 While getting Tyler changed out of his night time diaper and into his undies he wouldn’t turn and look at me. I asked him to turn toward me so I could put his pants back on. He replied, “I will look at you in one minute mommy. I have to wait ’till I’m so handsome with my undies.”

10/25/08 When asked why he was in his room crying, Tyler replied “The peoples ate my cheese and crashed our car.”             Hmmmm?

He trys to say “yeah” but it comes out as “yo”                                                                 For example: Me - Tyler, do you want a snack? Tyler - “yo”

Me - Ty, is your answer yes or no?    Tyler - yes and no

I can’t believe that Halloween has already come and gone.  This year is flying by!!  We had a very nice Halloween.  Brandon decided to opt out of trick or treating this year.  He celebrated Reformation Day with is cousins.  He can not say enough about the fun he had!!

Shaun and I took Tyler trick or treating.  Tyler was a very cute “puppy Ty.” The first door that we knocked on was having a kids Halloween party.  Tyler saw children inside and invited himself in. From that house on, Tyler thought that he was supposed to go INTO each house. The other cute and funny thing was that each time he got candy, he would run up to me, bend down and look into his bucket and say “YES, it works!” How excited he was.  All you have to do is say trick or treat and you get candy.

However, there was the occasional door that took to long to be answered.  If you took more than 3 or 4 seconds to come to the door, Tyler was ringing the doorbell again! And again! One of the doors took about 30 seconds to be answered, so Tyler decided to try and open the door himself and go in after them.  He was a lot of fun!

All in all, he did well.  He got some candy and had a great time.  We caught up with our neighbors out trick or treating with their TRIPLET 3 year olds and another neighbor with their 2 kids.  Tyler really loved having all the kids around that were his size.  When we came home and dumped his candy onto the floor for examination, he let out a squeal of joy.  Oh how fun it is to be the mom of a 2 year old!

Naturalist!!

This is the result of me telling Tyler no more tv for the day.  He had to use his imagination.  With Tyler, everything is about cars. “Life is a Highway” is his motto.  In case you can’t tell, he dumped out ALL of his toy bins (and a couple of my laundry baskets) so that he could use them to make a road.  Gotta love it!

The new africa Exhibit has FINALLY opened at our zoo.  We have been waiting anxiously to see the giraffe.  Up until now, our zoo has not had a giraffe. They have been building a whole exhibit around his arrival.  So, on opening day, the boys and I headed out to the zoo. It was a great day.  The zoo was not very crowded. The trees had begun to change to the Autumn colors.  It was great! Check out the “photo album” of the blog for all the pics.

I am lucky enough to be the field trip coordinator for our homeschool co-op.  It is so much fun organizing trips for our group!  I love it! Our October field trip was to Linder Farms. It is a pumpkin patch, hay maze, corn maze, petting zoo, you name it.. We had a really great time.  I think that we had almost 70 people show up for the 1st field trip of this school year. That is awesome.  The weather was great. AND we were lucky enough to have the Husseys join us. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip. To see all of them, please visit the “photo album” section of our blog.

Alright, we have FINALLY been bearing some fruit from our garden.  This was our first time planting, and I haven’t really known what I have been doing.  Short of the random squash here or the random tomato there, we haven’t gotten much.  We came back from vacation and Brandon noticed some monster veggies in our garden.  I think I have found the secret to gardening - go on vacation!